Laila Hotel Mexico City Reforma — Hotel in Mexico City

I want to share my experience and send a beware message about this Hotel if you are a female traveling solo. It seems like the clientele at this place is not the usual well to do tourist and therefore they see females traveling solo in a dubious way. The staff is not used to high end clientele and does not communicate clearly which ends up costing the traveler more. They know it. They do it often. Mind you all this happened in Spanish.

I was in Mexico D.F. to attend the Miss Universe 2024 competition. We started planning months in advance. After spending a couple thousands in plane tickets and event tickets, my friend found this hotel conveniently located and well priced. He booked it. The good things about this place end there.

For health reasons my friend could not make the trip. He was supposed to arrive the night before me. I arrived at 7am Saturday morning on the day of the event.

When I check in I explain to the front desk attendant, Alfredo, that my friend could not make it. My friend had also emailed the hotel about this and about checking in early. I said that I would just be staying the night, that night Saturday and leaving Sunday. I was brief but clear. I asked if however I could get early access to the room as I was tired from a red eye flight. He makes some paperwork, I pay for one night and he gives me access to the room. I thought wow!, Thats great customer service! Viva Mexico! Well… it was a... scam?

When I wake up I go for breakfast. Upon my return the room key had been disabled. When I go to the front desk the new attendant Mauricio, says I have to pay again, after making a payment at 7am. That check out was at 1pm and that I had stayed the night (considering night 7am that morning) and that it is “understood” at every hotel those are the rules and they don’t have to remind the customers. Well isn’t that the laziest customer service policy in the world?! I tried telling him even urging him to check the security camera footage that the conversation I had with the morning attendant made it seem like the early check in had been approved. At no point the morning attendant mentioned paying again or anything. I tried to say that it was understood as an agreement at the moment. No, instead Mauricio used the “it is understood” that this is a hotel and no one has to explain anything else. Often hotels make exceptions and all kinds of complimentary things.

An employee near by started saying “all she wants is not to pay”. No. Thats not the issue here. The issue is the lack of professionalism in explaining policies with total clarity TRANSPARENCY in the morning when I checked in. Thats your duty as a business! They lead me to believe it is all ok and then taking away the access to the room to force me to pay more. All of this is on camera and I often asked them to check the footage. For this bad experience I blame a lack of RESPONSIBILITY and RESPECT towards the customer their money, time and decision to trust you with their business. Its almost as if they look down at the customers particularly if they are women. This creates a toxic and dangerous environment for travelers.

Mauricio and the manager Juan Pablo, then proceed to spew a word salad about policies and what was signed and what not while no one took responsibility for blatantly misleading the customer or trying some weird scheme to get two nights instead of one. No one took responsibility for the lack of clear communication but instead refer to the receipt. There in tiny little letters all the hotel policy, which conveniently had not been mentioned until now. Well when I check in it was understood and not clarified that I was getting access to the room as a complimentary thing. It was so disrespectful to be treated as someone who is trying to take advantage when in reality I had been mislead to trust in the hotel personnel.

As I was checking availability at the near by St. Regis Hotel, I realize I was now running late to get ready to my event and my only way was to pay extra to get access to my things.

My total...

I stayed in this hotel for 5 nights from 7/20/2019 for a conference. I moved here from the Hilton Reforma because it was closer to the Centrobamanex conf venue.

I had a double room with a colleague. The amenities were unimpressive by all measures and in key ways the building seems to be a continuing work in progress. We had to specifically request wash cloths which were provided. So, location was good and room was small with limited amenities but llivable for 4 nights as originally planned. I am big about gym when I travel and I was happy they had one as noted online. Gym was extremely compact and sadly had no mat to permit minimal stretching. The internet was slow. The restaurant was okay but not great. I was determined to have a good time and it was largely good till my last night.

I had to extend one extra night and began calling the reception from night before to make sure it would be seamless. The price we paid for what was available here was already on the very high side. Most hotels around were emptying out as conference wound down. After checking my options, I decided to stay put if my cost was a tiny bit lower because it was not worth switching hotels for just one night. The reception staff assured me rate is now lower and directed me to finalize at frombt desk in the morning.

As instructed, i confirmed in the morning before leaving for the conf venue. The man I spoke to- I assumed manger, first attempted to give me same rate and I declined. He reduced slightly to 2000 pesos for the extra night and I agreed. He agreed further that I can pay at checkout because I was in a rush.

My colleague leaves on schedule and I return from daylong conf unable to access my room. I assumed maybe my phone was too close to card again as this happened before. I head down to fix what I was sure was a small hiccup. Turns out the current staff on schedule smelled an opportunity to force more $ out of me. One of the three claims I was supposed to have checked out and I clarified the specific arrangement. She then insists the price is about 2500 pesos and must be paid now not on checkout if I wanted to stay at her hotel. The tone and implied force was unnecessary....

When I refused, she rudely asked for name of her Male colleague I claimed okayed the amount. I dont know if most people memorize name of their hotel staff but I certainly did not. Yet, these three women who are regular staff had no business creating this impression that I was lying to them or they couldn't figure out who the only Male staff I saw in that morning shift was.

I was offended by the violation of basic principle and refused to pay the new amount. Eventually and after more than 10 mins of needless drama, one of them agrees to honor their colleague's price and apologizes. It was clear to me they said the words but clearly didn't mean it. I went online to check price for room that night in same hotel, it was around 1500 pesos.

I really regret having to leave a long and negative review but what would have been a three star went down to one star over that incident. ...

The Laila Hotel is the perfect place to stay while you are visiting Mexico City for many reasons including Cleanliness, Location, Safety and most importantly the People who work at the hotel.||Cleanliness||The Laila Hotel is spotless. The people who care for the hotel and make sure the rooms are in tip top shape do an excellent job. The staff who clean the rooms are extremely friendly on a daily basis and make sure all of your needs are met for items that you may need in your room.||Location and Safety||The Hotel is in the most perfect location possible. It is at the heart of the city for many reasons. Feeling safe when you leave the hotel and walking around the area is of utmost importance. The Laila Hotel is located in the safest part of Mexico City with lots of restaurants right outside your front door.||It is within walking distance of the best neighborhoods. We were easily able to walk from the Laila to the Polanco neighborhood and Chapultepec Park which houses the Anthropology Museum, Chapultepec Castle, and the Tamayo Museum.||On a regular basis we would also walk to the Roma and Condesa neighborhoods|where we could find Parque de Mexico along with the Amsterdam Avenue loop. San Rafael and Santa Maria de la Ribera were just to the north was also not too far away.||People||I have stayed at many hotels in my life but there are certain hotels which I can call my home. The Laila Hotel is one of them. The people who work at the hotel make you feel very welcome and will help you out when you need to find our get something. My wife was bit by a dog while we were in Mexico City and needed some care so they went out and purchased some band aids for her wound.||We stayed at the hotel for a while and slowly everyone got to know us and became our friends. ||At the top of our list was Luis who became not only our best friend in Mexico City but also someone who I could talk to about our lives and our daily journey. He was very interested in learning English and I am very interested in learning Spanish so it was|a great way to help each other practice our language skills. ||One of the really nice things about staying at the Laila Hotel is that the front desk manager Alejandro speaks excellent English. This is extremely helpful if you are an English speaker and need to navigate around not only the city but understanding things at the hotel.||Jeronimo is another person at the hotel who we spoke to daily and he was always laughing with us about our lives and what we were doing on a daily basis. We had a lot in common with him as his English skills were also very good and he told us about what life was like living in Mexico City. This is very interesting for us because we are thinking about moving to Mexico and it's great to get a nice local perspective.||In summary I would highly recommend staying at the Laila Hotel on your visit to Mexico City. I am happy to know that any time I visit Mexico City I can go back to my home away from home...